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Jonathan Frid

Actor who burst from the crypt into the spotlight as a lovelorn vampire in the TV soap Dark Shadows and enjoyed a devoted following

May 18 2012, 1:01am, The Times

Frid with his co-star Grayson Hall in a characteristically tense scene from Dark Shadows which became hugely popularEverett Collection/Rex Features

Long, long before the Twilight series, True Blood and Being Human, and their attempts to reposition vampires as a troubled minority within mainstream society, there was Dark Shadows. It was invariably described as “soap opera”, rather than horror, albeit one in which the most popular character happened to be a vampire.

It ran for more than 1,200 episodes on American television between 1966 and 1971. Jonathan Frid, who played Barnabas Collins, a 200-year-old vampire looking for his lost love, became an almost iconic figure in American popular culture and an unlikely sex symbol, with his antediluvian wardrobe, long, dark hair and heavy eyebrows, pale face and pained expression.

Barnabas was haunted by the loss of his lover Josette, who was torn between her feelings for…